Re: Network install to hard drive

Thanks for the response, Diego; I was just using the wrong mount 
filesystem type (I had tried 'msdos' and 'fat', but if I tried 'vfat' 
then I must have done something else wrong at the time).

It looks I've got a rough HD install working!  Hillel, what further 
details might you want help with?

Diego Torres Milano wrote:
>>I'm still trying to figure this out myself; Einar's instructions were
>>very useful, but I'm noticing a problem that you might encounter
>>yourself once you get that far.
>>
>>Unless I'm doing something else wrong, Einar's procedure might actually
>>require a custom kernel; my test system, at least, is having a hard time
>> mounting a local hard drive partition to copy the final images to (see
>>below).
>>
> 
> Your kernel doesn't need to mount or even recognize the filesystems,
> despite the fact that standard PXES kernel will recognize vfat, ext2 and
> squashfs.
> Bootloader should be able to read it.
> You can copy filesystem images made in another box.
> 
>>Overall, however, I think that that method is a good one; I don't know
>>how others prefer to do it, but when I doctored my install image, I
>>edited /bin/startsession to add an 'install)' section in the 'case
>>"$SESSION" in' block.  This 'install)' section executes my own custom
>>install scripts, and this can be chosen from the PXELINUX boot menu
>>(e.g., enter '1 SESSION_DEFAULT=install' at boot time.  Kind of a cheezy
>> hack, but I'm new to this too. :)  ).
>>
>>So what I do there is call a script that tries to partition, format, and
>> mount the local hard drive as Einar suggested, and to do this I did
>>have  to copy mkdosfs and fdisk into the initrd on the server like he
>>did, as  well as bootloader utilities (I'm using syslinux, just because
>>I'm more  used to it than I am to grub).  Once this is working, it
>>should be as  simple as copying the intended images to the new partition
>>and running  the bootloader configuration tool.
>>
>>So this might be a good time to ask everyone else:  Is a special kernel
>>required, or should certain utilities be included in the install
>>environment, to mount a DOS (or even ext2 if one's using grub) partition
>> from within PXES so the final image can be copied over?  Here's what
>>I'm  seeing:
>>
>># mount -t msdos /dev/discs/disc0/part1 /mnt/hd
>>mount: Mounting /dev/discs/disc0/part1 on /mnt/hd failed: No such device
> 
> and dd if=/dev/discs/disc0/part1 of=/dev/null count=1024 ?
> 
>>I'm pretty sure I've got the device files right, since 'fdisk -l
>>/dev/discs/disc0/disc' shows the same filename for the partition.  Does
>>anyone know if this is normal behavior, and whether PXES requires any
>>special configuration to be able to mount local hard drive partitions?
>>
>>Sorry I don't have any better information, Hillel, though I'm glad to
>>offer more details up to the point where I'm having these problems, if
>>that helps at all.  Anybody else have any thoughts?
>>
>>-Phil Regier
>>[email protected]
>>
>>Hillel Seltzer wrote:
>>
>>>Hello Everyone,
>>>
>>>I am a complete pxes newbie, and I think what I am looking
>>>for is a little more difficult than your basic installation.
>>>
>>>I want to set up a PXES session to boot from the network
>>>and then download the actual PXES image and kernel to
>>>the client's hard drive so that the client will then boot
>>>from the hard drive.
>>>
>>>I saw a message in the archives from Eliassen Einar who has
>>>already done this, but the email address was obscured in the
>>>sourceforge viewing page.  Can you provide more details?
>>>Any other opinions on a better way to accomplish the same thing? Email
>>>me directly at [email protected] if you do not want
>>>to discuss in too great detail on list.
>>>
>>>Thanks in advance.
>>>---Hillel
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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> 
> 
> 

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